From the “Church of Elsewhere” to the phrases about his son Ciro. The new version of Grillo-Corriere.it

«Well, once upon a time I used to fill sports halls with almost 10,000 people. Today, however, I’m here with you.” And the «you» are the 450 paying guests of the (decidedly smaller) audience of the Mancinelli Theatre, with several empty spaces. The perfect photograph of his moment, personal and political, Beppe Grillo he takes it alone on stage in Orvieto.

The big comeback after three years without performances, between waning popularity and the pandemic, therefore starts from a self-analysis, perhaps involuntary. Because if the splendor is no longer what it used to be, in which reruns multiplied and winning a ticket was a feat, clicking on the 18 remaining stages of this tour does not reveal exciting results.

For many dates, all in medium-small theatres, pre-sales go slow. Many, perhaps too many for the public’s expectations, from the Diana theater in Naples to the final stage in his native Genoa on 17 April. In Palermo, where the M5S scored full marks by betting everything on basic income, there are quite a few tickets still unsold.

Things are better in Naples, where the echo of income is felt. Pre-sales are better for Brancaccio in Rome or the Nazionale in Milan, where the mobilization of the movement machine that has become a party must be taken into account. Bad in Lugano and Genoa.

It is the solitude of the former leader of the crowded squares for the «vaffa day», who the other evening at his debut in Orvieto did not even have the opportunity to embrace his prodigal son Alessandro Di Battista, who (they say) flew to the East on a volunteer mission. Yet at the end of the Orvieto “first” of “I am the worst”, this is the sarcastic title of the new show, waiting for him at the table were the leader Giuseppe Conte, the deputy Michele Gubitosa, the former president of the Chamber Roberto Fico, that of Inps Pasquale Tridico, the director of THE

l Everyday fact
Marco Travaglio, the notary Valerio Tacchini (for years guardian of the votes on Rousseau) and some parliamentarians. A demonstration of closeness and affection in a difficult moment of the noble father, especially on a private level? Certain. But even these two tables are the photograph of an obligatory and osmotic relationship.

Conte leads a party that sails above 15%, but the keys belong to “Beppe”. The guarantor, in turn, needs his creature to be healthy, because from the Movement he receives a contract of around 300 thousand euros per year as communication consultancy, which moreover expires in April.

The moment is also difficult on a private level: his son Ciro he ended up on trial accused of gang rape against two girls he met on the Costa Smeralda: “It’s a political trial,” he vented in Orvieto. The legal costs are very high and, in the event of a conviction, there is a risk of colossal compensation. And also for this reason, making ends meet for Grillo is much more complicated than before.

Thus, perhaps for the same reason, at the age of almost 75 «Beppe» was forced to return to work as a showman. And politics, at least for now, remains distant: “The leader is Conte, the wizard of Oz who revived the Movement”, he acknowledges today after the brutal clashes of a couple of summers ago. In this phase he says he wants to devote himself to something else, such as founding the Church Elsewhere; to get 8 per thousand and finance, he explained from the stage, charity projects.